Friday, July 10th, 2020
Stop Rampal Coal and Rooppur Nuclear plants including all life destructive projects. Ensure universal public health, food security and environment friendly energy and electricity generation.
A global online meeting of the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas and mineral Resources in Bangladesh (NCBD) held on the 4th July 2020. Prof Anu Mohammad presided over the meeting and NCBD central leaders and organisers from different parts of the globe attended. Organizers from the UK, the USA, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, and Sweden joined the meeting. Energy experts and physicians address the meeting. Mostafa Farook, convener of the NCBD Europe facilitated the meeting.
Professor Anu Mohammed, NCBD Member Secretary in his speech has said that the Government of Bangladesh has allocated huge amount of money for harmful coal and nuclear plants like Rampal, Matarbari and Rooppur. Budget for 2020-21 has planned to invest for protecting foreign & corporate interest by allocating large sums of money Tk 16 thousand cores for Rooppur nuclear plant while people have been facing huge health crisis due to Corona pandemic. This money should have been used for improving health service, job creation and mitigating current unemployment and food crisis. Money could be used in a better way rather harming our lives and environment. The Government has taken expensive energy import policy and frequently hiking electricity price being having good alternative source within the country. Recently, Government has announced to close down environment friendly jute industries handing out for privatization. Bangladesh is moving towards dirty coal energy while the world is phasing it out. Traditional development path harmful to environment and ecology and has brought huge suffering and climate change. We need to shift our development paradigm. Instead of GDP growth and coal based energy policy, we need to move towards fossil fuel free environment friendly renewably energy, fair distribution of wealth and public control over energy sector. We need more investment in public health, renewable energy and food rationing for the poor. There are some corrupt vested interest groups in power sector working as corporate agents, protecting their interest, involved with bribery, making profit and transfer their wealth abroad. In future, they would face trial for their corruption and bribery and wealth will be confiscated. Expatriate can make a resistance against these corrupts and already made an example resisting them in Toronto.
On the one hand, Bangladesh government has pushed the country in danger by setting up nuclear and coal-based power plant argument grounded on scarcity of gas. On the other hand, paying 10 thousand crore Taka to the private sector power generation business owner as subsidy. It is surprising that government has announced to close down 25 jute mills that could be modernised spending Tk one thousand crores. Government has taken initiatives to build 29 coal-based power plants in our coastline which will bring disastrous impact on our environment while Bangladesh is more vulnerable to climate change. Global Coal Management (GCM) has been conspiring to get in again in Phulbari to cast open pit mine. Although, companies from China, India and Japan investing in coal in Bangladesh, yet divesting in coal in their respective countries. Rooppur nuclear power plant will bring serious hazards and threat to Bangladesh. To resist all these harmful power generation projects, we need to build up local and global struggle to save our lives and environment. Expatriate can play a significant role streaming our struggle at the global sphere.
Dr Salimuzzaman from UK has presented a paper on Comprehensive Healthcare and Health Safety in Bangladesh. He has said that Bangladesh is doing one of the lowest Covid test in the region, only 4.5 percent and also lower allocation for health budget. He demanded allocation has to be increased 12 percent of the total annual budget for health. Mahbub Sumon has exposed Government’s current Power Sector Master Plan (PSMP) that has fixed it target to increase coal-based energy generation from 2.5 to 35 percent. He has placed an Alternative Power Sector Master Plan based on renewable.
Global solidarity meeting demanded immediate scraps of hazardous Rampal and Roppur power plants to save the Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest and threat to life and environment. The meeting was on demand for full implementation of Phulbari agreement and ban of GCM in Bangladesh and implementation of NCBD’s alternative Master plan to ensure cheap and environment friendly power generation emphasizing renewable sources. To rise up and hold these demands the global online meeting decided to organise seminar and meeting though out the year. On the 18th July NCBD will hold public meeting all over the country, on the 26 August will observe Phulbari solidarity day and commemorate martyred of the upsurge of 2006 and finally on 26 September will organize meeting and rally all over the world as global solidarity day.
Central leader from the NCBD Ruhin Hossain Prince, Bazlur Rashid Firoz, Saiful Haque, Fakruddin Atik were present in the Meeting. Amon other from the globe Dr Akhter S Khan Masroor, Dr Q Rahman, Dr Rafikul Hassan Khan, Nisar Ahmed, Abed Ali, Waliur Rahman, Bablu Khondoker, Anupam Saikat Santo, Parvez Alom, Babul Syed, Nazrul Russell, Farhad Ripon, Rakibul Islam, Jasim Uddin Ahmed, Mosrraf Hossain Khan, Koli Islam, Akter Hossain Alok, Mamunur Rashid Sohel, Mahbubur Rahman, Asfer Syed Ferdous, Tushar Roy, Khan Asaduzzaman, Nurul Alam, Noman, Rashid, Kibria Hossain, Zakir Hossain, Sunan Morshed and Mozzamel Haque addressed the meeting.
Signed by:
Akhter S Khan Masroor
Member Secretary
NCBD, UK